One of the most overlooked aspects in designing a website that we often brush off is web accessibility. There’s a misconception that web accessibility requires sacrifices to aesthetics, or that it’s not worth the effort.

Image with text that says Web Accessibility Tips

But, with a growing number of ways that users access the web, creating highly-accessible and universal designs that can be viewed in as many ways as possible is critical to the success of a website.

Last week we took a look at tracking, which is the amount of space between letters, and how it is an important part of designing with type. Today we’re looking at a close mate of tracking called Kerning. While tracking is the overall letter spacing, kerning is selective letter spacing between pairs of letters.

Certain letters, when placed beside each other create an awkward space. We use kerning to increase or reduce that space to make text more readable and more visually appealing. Here’s a few examples of letters which don’t always sit well together.